As a Breastfeeding Counsellor and Doula, I spend a lot of time talking to women (and men) about breastfeeding. I also hang out online rather a lot, reading forums and blogs about my favourite subject. Here are a few of the statements about infant feeding I hear most…and my thoughts in response. Continue Reading

Where to, Love? said the taxi driver. Up with the lark, ain't yer?
Station, please. Tickets please, next stop, Kings Cross.
30p for a wee, then mind the gap, tube to Baker Street.
Past tourists gathering outside 221b
Leafy streets and round the bend, the Royal College.
The rarefied air and Continue Reading

My latest trip to the Dunkirk refugee camp, now christened The New Jungle, was a depressing but satisfactory visit.
This time l went with some other doulas and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, who needed to visit the camp to assess the conditions for mothers either Continue Reading

This latest offering in my irregular series of guest posts is this interview with the inspiring Paula Cleary. Doula, Birth Activist and Founder of Birthplace Matters, Paula manages to find time in between home educating five children to support birthing mothers and raise awareness of the disparities Continue Reading

This week there has some been some very random, and very mysterious news headlines in the media. Without warning, the media began reporting that the Royal College of Midwives was no longer going to be promoting 'normal birth'. None of the offending journalists seemed bothered by the fact that this Continue Reading

Today's post is an anonymous contribution from a midwife working in the NHS. I publish this to help her find an outlet for her feelings and to draw attention to the looming crisis that maternity services face as more midwives are leaving the profession than joining, funding is being cut and morale Continue Reading

Have you heard the old story about the origins of doulas in the British Isles? We were once the 'Sisters-in-God'; the village women who bustled around when a new baby was on the way. We would arrive, nattering in a good-natured way, shooing the menfolk out of the house as we tidied, organised, Continue Reading

Linda Robinson blogs again about her latest trip to France. I am honoured to host her writings. Please read and share. The horror of what is happening is being ignored by the press because of Brexit and elections. But this stuff matters too - it is a humanitarian crisis on our doorstep.
DAY 1
Back Continue Reading

North, South, East, West
My medicine-wheel drum beats to the rythmn of the flame.
She spins like the foam in the brook,
She whispers and shivers with the breeze in the trees,
She plants her roots in red earth, where she was born.
Arbor she becomes, sprouting leaves from her bones and veins on Continue Reading